Anglais
Is Canada a dangerous bastion of socialism? According to Trump, maybe: Don Pittis
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So what exactly is socialism, anyway, and why is U.S. President Donald Trump so alarmed about it?
In what some are calling the start of a new Red Scare of the kind that divided U.S. politics and economics in the previous century, the president used last week’s state of the union address to stoke partisan anxiety.
« Here in the United States, we are alarmed by the new calls to adopt socialism in our country, » Trump declared in his speech to Congress. « America was founded on liberty and independence — and not government coercion, domination and control. »
As he spoke, network cameras panned to self-declared supporter of socialism Sen. Bernie Sanders and, by U.S. standards, the left-leaning Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
‘Socialist’ like Canada?
But, of course, to most Canadians — and to most of the world’s other liberal democracies — the socialism of Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez that advocates things like universal health care and moderating the extremes of U.S. wealth and poverty does not seem very alarming.
To most Canadians, raised in what has been called a mixed economy for its combination of the public and private sector, that kind of socialism holds little terror.
Left-leaning member of Congress Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez looks down at a button with a picture of a child, as Trump talks about immigration during his state of the union address. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
The discussion of who owns the means of production is one of the places where politics and economics come together in the subject area known as political economy.
When I studied economics decades ago, most of the courses analyzed the pure mechanics of capitalism.
Political economy only raised its head in a final-year course on the history of economic thought, which came as a revelation, and in which anyone who did not follow mainstream capitalist thinking was described scathingly as « heterodox. » That included socialism.
Socialism defined
In a short telephone call, Laura Macdonald, a Carleton University professor and former director of the school’s Institute of Political Economy, offered the following:
« Socialism is a broad ideology that has different variants, but in general is associated with greater faith in the role of the state versus the market, and a skepticism about the capacity of the market, on its own, to deliver both growth and social equity. »
As a term, she said, socialism is contextual, which means to say it depends on how you use it.
A sculpture of Karl Marx, author of The Communist Manifesto, in Chemnitz, Germany. (Hannibal Hanschke/Reuters)
« I don’t think Donald Trump would call us socialist, but probably he thinks we’re dangerously close to that and that may be one of the reasons he doesn’t like Canada very much, » Macdonald said.
Stella Gaon was thrilled for a journalist to actually ask her questions on her specialty as a theorist at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, where she studies the economic and intellectual origins of political thought.
« This is just anti-commie rhetoric from the 1950s, » Gaon said of Trump’s remarks. « Nobody even knows what socialism is. »
Liberalism vs. socialism
Socialism and liberalism are both rooted in the Enlightenment values of freedom, rationality and equality, she said.
The difference between socialism and liberalism is that socialists don’t believe equality is real unless you include economic equality.
In its purest theoretical form, socialism required people to be equally rich, an ideal that Gaon said has never been attained in practice. In its original form, it also required the state to be in control of everything. No private businesses allowed.
A memorial to Karl Marx in London’s Highgate Cemetery was damaged by a vandal earlier this month. (Peter Nicholls/Reuters)
Socialism has come a long way since the days when socialism and communism meant roughly the same thing, said Tom Flanagan, a political theorist and professor emeritus at the University of Calgary.
Socialism meant the state control of all industry and « the replacement of the markets by an administrative economy, » said Flanagan, a conservative political activist who was an adviser to former Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper.
But since then, and especially after the creation of the Soviet top-down communist system in the 20th century, social democracy became the mainstream form of socialism outside communist countries, a kind of watered-down version we see in northern Europe and elsewhere that attempts to share the wealth and equalize opportunity without requiring economic equality.
America, the already socialist
Whereas Gaon insists Canada is purely a liberal democracy — after all, even the country’s left-leaning New Democratic Party has dropped the word socialism from its constitution — Flanagan sees many elements of socialism and administrative planning not just in Canada but in the U.S. as well.
According to that way of thinking, Trump may be too late. Socialism has already arrived.
« It’s a matter of degree, » Flanagan said. « All contemporary countries have some elements of socialism, you know, public schools are socialist, owned and operated by the state and there’s no price to get into them. »
While Flanagan doesn’t see a full-fledged socialist takeover on the horizon, he says using the term within the Democratic Party represents a major change.
« Suddenly it’s gone mainstream, » he said. « It’s an important development, because once you start using the vocabulary, it indicates receptivity to more sweeping programs of state intervention. »
Follow Don on twitter @don_pittis
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In downtown Montreal, it’s festival season.
In the city’s entertainment district, a musical act was conducting a sound check on stage Friday evening — the second day of the French-language version of the renowned Just For Laughs comedy festival. Tickets for many of the festival’s free outdoor shows — limited by COVID-19 regulations — were sold out.
Two blocks away, more than 100 people were watching an acoustic performance by the Isaac Neto Trio — part of the last weekend of the Festival International Nuits d’Afrique, a celebration of music from the African continent and the African diaspora.
With COVID-19 restrictions continuing to limit capacity, festival organizers say they’re glad to be back but looking forward to next year when they hope border restrictions and capacity limits won’t affect their plans.
Charles Décarie, Just For Laughs’ CEO and president, said this is a “transition year.”
“Even though we have major constraints from the public health group in Montreal, we’ve managed to design a festival that can navigate through those constraints,” Décarie said.
The French-language Juste pour rire festival began on July 15 and is followed by the English-language festival until July 31.
When planning began in February and March, Décarie said, organizers came up with a variety of scenarios for different crowd sizes, ranging from no spectators to 50 per cent of usual capacity.
“You’ve got to build scenarios,” he said. “You do have to plan a little bit more than usual because you have to have alternatives.”
MONTREAL — MELS Studios will build a new film studio in Montreal, filling some of the gap in supply to meet the demand of Hollywood productions.
MELS president Martin Carrier said on Friday that MELS 4 studio construction will begin « as soon as possible », either in the fall or winter of next year. The studio could host productions as early as spring 2023.
The total investment for the project is $76 million, with the Quebec government contributing a $25 million loan. The project will create 110 jobs, according to the company.
The TVA Group subsidiary’s project will enable it to stand out « even more » internationally, according to Quebecor president and CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau. In the past, MELS Studios has hosted several major productions, including chapters of the X-Men franchise. The next Transformers movie is shooting this summer in Montreal.
Péladeau insisted that local cultural productions would also benefit from the new facility, adding that the studio ensures foreign revenues and to showcase talent and maintain an industry of Quebec producers.
STUDIO SHORTAGE
The film industry is cramped in Montreal.
According to a report published last May by the Bureau du cinéma et de la télévision du Québec (BCTQ), there is a shortage of nearly 400,000 square feet of studio space.
With the addition of MELS 4, which will be 160,000 square feet, the company is filling part of the gap.
Carrier admitted that he has had to turn down contracts because of the lack of space, representing missed opportunities of « tens of millions of dollars, not only for MELS, but also for the Quebec economy. »
« Montreal’s expertise is in high demand, » said Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante, who was present at the announcement.
She said she received great testimonials from « Netflix, Disney, HBO and company » during an economic mission to Los Angeles in 2019.
« What stands out is that they love Montreal because of its expertise, knowledge and beauty. We need more space, like MELS 4, » she said.
There is still not enough capacity in Quebec, acknowledged Minister of Finance, the Economy and Innovation Eric Girard.
« It is certain that the government is concerned about fairness and balance, so if other requests come in, we will study them with the same seriousness as we have studied this one, » he said.
Grandé Studios is the second-largest player in the industry. Last May, the company said it had expansion plans that should begin in 2022. Investissement Québec and Bell are minority shareholders in the company.
For its part, MELS will have 400,000 square feet of production space once MELS 4 is completed. The company employs 450 people in Quebec and offers a range of services including studio and equipment rentals, image and sound postproduction, visual effects and a virtual production platform.
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